Our cat, Taurus

We had to put our cat, Taurus, down last week. She was 16 1/2 years old. We are all sad…. it was very unexpected. In fact, Henry and I joked on a regular basis that she would live forever due to the fact that she NEVER STRESSED HERSELF OUT OVER ANYTHING. Stressed us out, but never herself.

This is not the only picture I have of her (I don’t think!) but it’s the only one I can find right now. And it’s appropriate because it makes her look kindof loud and psycho, and for those who knew her, she was crazy and neurotic.

My sister, Katie, liked to refer to her as Bertha. Those who’ve read Jane Eyre are chuckling right now. Those who haven’t are a little lost… It’s okay. No more 19th century lit references, I promise.

It’s so hard to give everyone a full picture of what our cat was like, but we felt we should eulogize her here for the many who met her over the years and loved/hated her. It’s okay, we loved/hated her too. She was one sick cat on multiple levels.

First of all, around a year old she started vomiting every day. I took her to the vet and switched her food…. it went to a 3 wks off, 1 wk on cycle of vomiting. During the week she was vomiting she would eat plastic bags, panty hose, photographs, the shower curtain… I just realized I’m so used to hiding these things that I forgot I was hiding them anymore.

There’s nothing that can get me out of bed faster than a cat gagging somewhere in the house in the middle of the night. Okay, I lie. I jump up even faster when the cat is gagging right next to my head ON my pillow. Which happened often because Taurus liked to sleep with us. As independent and snobby as she was with strangers, she loved being with us. In recent years she’d choose to fall asleep with Natalie and then wander into Henry and my bed when we came up a few hours later. In the summer she slept on my pillow next to my head. In the winter, she’d come under the covers and sleep curled up in the circle of space my legs created when I slept on my side. She really was very loving.

True story – she used to watch Henry and I loving on each other. It was weird and funny at the same time. We’d joke about it. And I plan to keep joking about it. Makes me laugh out loud as I type. Like I said, she was a sicko.

She was a tiny cat – often mistaken for a kitten. Probably due to her cyclical vomiting (or bulimia as one friend joked) she was just around 5 pounds. In her last few days she lost about a pound and looked so forlorn and sad. But she still curled up beside us the night before she died and slept under our covers.

She was a very, very vocal cat. I remember when she was young and we didn’t have any kids. I’d come home from work and she’d yell at me for about 15 minutes telling me that the cleaners had been to the house that day. Seriously. I know she was trying to tell me someone had been in the house while I was gone. She was that intense.

When we travelled – – especially if we were gone a week or more – – she yelled at us when we came home. She’d been known to yell at us for up to 2 hours. Not sure if she was letting us know someone was coming in to feed her, or she was mad she wasn’t able to come along. Either way, it was annoying. Especially when you’ve been traveling a long distance, get in around midnight, and have to wake up early the next day. She spent a few nights in the garage because of it.

The vet thinks there was a blockage in her intestine and because of her age didn’t think Taurus could survive a surgery, let alone a recovery. The kids were able to say good-bye at an ad-hoc funeral on our hill and of course, a tombstone has gone up as a memorial that they can visit. Natalie visited it every day for the first few days.

Overall though, Taurus was a sweet kitty and we miss her greatly.